The mixture of organoclays and polyolefins, commonly called nano-olefins, is highly desired because the organoclays can contribute barrier properties to polyolefins for food packaging and other situations where the contained product within packaging must not leach, escape, or decay. Polyolefins for packaging have been useful since the mid-20th Century. Organoclays, smectite inorganic clays intercalated with organic ions, such as quaternary ammonium, have become useful in the last decade.
Organoclays are expensive additives for polyolefins such as HDPE. Nonetheless, several others have taught the use of organoclays as additives for HDPE among other resins. Representative examples of such prior work include U.S. Pat. No. 6,447,860 (Mueller et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 6,610,781 (Zhou et al.); and U.S. Pat. No. 6,884,834 (Reinking et al.). All of these prior efforts provide generalized ranges of organoclay in HDPE compounds.